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9 Tips for Writing Your Wedding Vows

Many brides like to personalize their weddings by writing their own wedding vows. This is a great way for them to share the overwhelming love and excitement for the future, but can sometimes be hard to write. We have 9 tips to make writing your wedding vows easy, manageable, and memorable:

PLAN

Don’t wait until the last minute to write your vows! Writing your wedding vows may seem like an easy task, but it is important that you allot time to write it, edit it, and make it perfect for your big day. After all, you’ll be reciting them in front of all of your guests and, most importantly, the person you are marrying. Set aside plenty of time to sit and brainstorm, write out ideas, edit them into a fluid and cohesive piece, and add finishing touches.

SET THE GROUND RULES

This is very important: make sure that both you and your fiancé will be writing your own vows. To ensure that you both are on the same page, select a loose structure that allows each person to tailor it the way they’d like while maintaining the same infrastructure. Something as simple as agreeing to begin your vows with “the first time I knew I loved you was when…” and ending with “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you and …” is perfect.

PICK YOUR TONE

To help you with your writing, you need to decide what type of tone you’re looking to set. Do you want to write vows that will make your fiancé and guests laugh? Do you want to do something more romantic and traditional? Something religious? Or maybe something sweet?

Once you set the tone, brainstorm ideas that will help you keep your speech on point and easy for your guests to follow.

JUST WRITE

Writing down memories and points you want to include in your vows will help you to keep track of ideas. We encourage you to sit down for ten minutes without any interruption and just write down ideas. You don’t have to include all of the ideas you write, but it may just help you find the perfect words.

Not quite sure where to start? To get your mind jogging, ask yourself questions like “How did you meet?”, “When did you know you fell in love?”, “What was the first thing you noticed about your fiancé?”, “What are you looking forward to most?”, “What do you love most about them?”

TALK IT OUT

Writing your vows can be overwhelming, and that’s what your friends and family want to help you overcome during this incredibly hectic (but rewarding) time in your life. Feel free to have open conversations with your bridesmaids and family to get inspiration, suggestions, and examples that you can consider for your vows.

SEEK INSPIRATION FROM GENERATIONS BEFORE

If you can’t find the right words to say how you feel, remember that it’s ok to “borrow” wise words! Take inspiration, and even include excerpts from poems, proverbs, or famous quotes. These cannot only be great in your vows, but they’ll also help you generate more ideas to incorporate.

STRUCTURE

If you’re having a hard time organizing all of your thoughts, create an outline and make a note of everything you want to expand on. The great thing about making an outline is that it is editable; so don’t be afraid to switch words, thoughts, and ideas around to create your perfect vow.

REMEMBER YOUR AUDIENCE

Keep in mind that your audience will be enjoying your vows as well. Be sure to keep inside jokes to a minimum and restrict anything that your fiancé may find embarrassing. If your not sure if they will or not, play it safe and leave it out.

TIME & REHEARSE IT

Wedding vows are relatively short for the most part. The suggested length of reciting your vows is between one to one and a half minutes per person.
To make sure that you’re on time and that the words flow the way you want them to, rehearse them! Go old fashioned and recite them in front of a mirror or your maid-of-honor.